Carmela is in the midst of celebrating her first Chanukah this week. Unfortunately, she's also teething (we think for real this time), so the wonder and curiosity at all the lights is punctuated with crying jags and general crankiness and irritability. While it's fairly easy to distract her during the day, last night was rough, despite a dose of infant Tylenol, and ended with Mom sleeping on the couch and bouncing the bouncy chair to keep Carmela consoled and sleeping. Today Mom tried rubbing a little rum on Ela's gums; it seemed to work this morning, and Ela was able to drift off into a 2-hour nap. It didn't seem to work this afternoon, and Ela fussed and cried while Mom drank the rest of the rum. Tonight we'll be trying the Orajel. Hopefully Ela won't be freaked out at the way it makes her mouth feel ... especially because there's no more rum.
But back to Chanukah. On second night, Mom put Carmela in her dinner seat and lit candles — Carmela enjoyed watching the flames flicker. Yesterday morning, Ela got to open presents from Merle and Irene and from her Great-Aunt Patty and Great-Uncle Steve and her cousins, Patrick, Bizzy, and Michael. She thinks presents are pretty cool because they're covered in crinkly paper. It's like two presents in one!
Last night we went to our synagogue's Chanukah celebration. Ela liked watching all the kids run and scream, make candy menorahs, and play dreidel. Mom and Dad liked eating some latkes and sufganiyot, which were delicious. At the end, everyone gathered around and lit their menorahs that they brought from home. Carmela really liked looking at all the candles, even though she'd cried a little bit before the candle lighting when some cheering and clapping scared her. When we got home, Mom and Dad had dinner, including more latkes, and some peppermint ice cream for dessert, while Carmela cooked up her crying jag in the bedroom.
To think there's four more days of Chanukah, and 32 teeth.
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